


Foundling

by DestinysWindow



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Bilbo's family are greedy, Fluff, Gen, Minor cursing, a bit of timeline AU, baby!Bilbo, daddy!Dwalin, fili kili and gimli are little shits, lots of fluff, minor OCs - Freeform, orphaned!Bilbo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-18
Updated: 2014-06-18
Packaged: 2018-02-05 06:19:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1808479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DestinysWindow/pseuds/DestinysWindow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Fili, Kili and Gimli find baby Bilbo along the shores of Lake Evendim and no sign of his parents, it falls to Dwalin to make sure the Fauntling gets back to his own people.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Foundling

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be for The Hobbit Big Bang Challenge, but as you can see, it was late. So I decided to just post as I finished each chapter. 
> 
> A big thanks to quiddative for beta-ing this.
> 
> Edit: added the lovely banner that the wonderful Sra_Danvers made for me. I can't believe I almost forgot about it. Thanks again for it!

 

Dwalin stared at the muddy ground beneath his boots and sighed. Against all common sense, he glanced around the area once more, hoping that maybe he'd be able to find one, just one, animal track. Yet, all he could see were boot prints. The three adolescent Dwarrows behind him cringed when he finally turned to them. 

"Tell me again what happened." Dwalin grumbled.

The older dwarf took some pleasure in the hooligans’ slumped shoulders and downcast looks. He knew he shouldn't have let these three come along this year - they simply weren’t ready nor were they even close to being mature enough. But Thorin and Dis had insisted that he take Fili and Kili, and Gloin hadn't been able to say no when his own boy had declared that he wanted to follow his older cousins. So Dwalin found himself saddled with three of Ered Luin's biggest trouble makers. He counted it as a blessing that they had waited until they were out of the mountain’s shadow before wreaking havoc among the group. 

Gimli opened and closed his mouth a few were nudging each other, which evolved into pinching and kicking one another until Fili finally managed to get the upper hand and shoved his younger brother forward. Kili cracked under the weight of Dwalin's full attention.

"We were doing fine at first and then the trail just disappeared and we couldn't find it again," the young Dwarrow rambled quickly. It was what he did whenever he was telling half-truths and Dwalin knew it.

Dwalin breathed in deeply and reminded himself that this was a training exercise. They were here to learn how to hunt, track and generally survive in the wild. If there was anyone to be angry at, it was himself. He knew better than to let newbies scout the way and should have at least sent one of the veterans with them, but he'd been suckered by their pleading into letting them go alone. Thorin was always making fun of him for being a softie.

"That would be because you trampled every square inch of ground in the immediate area!" Dwalin threw his hand out to indicate the semi-clearing around them. He was suddenly grateful for the wolf pack they ran into a week ago and the several pelts they managed to salvage from the carnage. Thorin would never let him live it down if the party returned completely empty-handed, even though their purpose was not to bring goods back to the mountain. Still, it was an added bonus when they were able to bring back extra meat and furs. "You're supposed to be careful where you walk. You were probably making extra noise too."

"Gimli's the one who started hollering!" Kili's arm shot out to point accusingly at the red head.

"Because you pulled my beard!" Gimli shot back, smoothing down the beginnings of a beard that was well on its way to being just as grand as his mother's.

And there it was. Dwalin rubbed his face again. He knew it couldn't have been a simple case of not watching where they were going. Even they weren't that bad. The three had most likely antagonized each other until one of them finally cracked and threw a punch. Naturally, they then got into a wrestling match and scared away all the game in the area while they were at it. Gimli and Kili were still arguing about who had started the brawl and whose fault it was that they had lost track of the small herd of deer while Fili watched with a little smirk gracing his face. Dwalin leveled a glare at the blond prince. He only ever had that look when he knew that he was about to get out of trouble. The little shit was too smart for his own good and inherited all of his mother's cunning. If Kili and Gimli were going to out themselves then Fili would sit back and let them, never even hinting that he was actually the one who had started it. 

Dwalin finally grew tired of the bickering. "Shut up!" he hollered to be heard over the two younger Dwarrows. "The three of you are on water fetching duty for the rest of the week." There was a chorus of groans and an undignified squawk from Fili, who hadn't expected to be punished. "And unless it involves fetching water, you will not be leaving camp without the supervision of an adult. Do you understand?" The three grumbled but acknowledged the command in the end. Dwalin nodded, sighing, "Good. Now go back and get the rest of the party. We'll camp here for the night. The Lake is nearby so it shouldn't take you lot too long to do your jobs."

Glad for the chance to get away without being punished even more, the boys ran off toward the rest of the group. Dwalin watched until they were out of sight before dropping his pack in a prime location. It wasn't long before the others started to trickle into the clearing and break off into smaller groups to share fires. The party he was leading this year was bigger than the ones from previous years. Now that the Ereborian refugees had finally settled and stabilized, more and more people were choosing to start families. The next trip in another five years would probably have to be split in two with a few weeks in between for Dwalin to rest. Teaching younglings how to survive in the wild was exhausting.

Some of the veterans Dwalin always brought along to help keep the students in line joined him in his spot up against a couple of trees. The few younglings that had taken well to the bow and arrow had slipped into the surrounding woods in search of any game that might not have been scared away by the party's appearance. They would also set traps that would be checked in the morning for breakfast. Dwalin spotted Fili, Kili and Gimli, weighed down with pots and water skeins, heading in the opposite direction of the hunters and toward the shoreline of Lake Evendim.

Once they were out of sight, Dwalin turned to the patch of forest before him, hatchet in hand, and started searching for suitable firewood. Before long, fires were springing up all over the clearing. Gavin, one of the dwarrows sharing Dwalin's fire, returned from his impromptu hunting escapade some time later with two decent sized birds that he immediately started plucking once he sat down. He was a longtime friend of Dwalin's, from their early wandering days. A calm, good-natured dwarf who knew when to be stern and when to be lax, he made for a decent teacher and had been at the top of Dwalin's list for helping with these trips since the beginning. Most of the younglings were intimidated by his size and the Warrior's Crest that he still wore down the middle of his skull.

Around them, others were returning from their hunts, usually with a small animal in hand, and set about preparing their catch. Dwalin busied himself with his equipment, zoning out from everyone around him as he methodically worked oil into the leather of his knuckledusters and ax harness. It wasn't until Gavin dropped a pile of long thin branches on the ground next to him that he looked up.

"What're you doing?" Dwalin grunted, eyeing the sticks.

Gavin pulled a ball of twine from his bag and set about tying the ends of two sticks together perpendicularly. "Making a spit so I can roast these birds for us,” he answered.

The balding dwarf blinked and looked around the camp to see that several other fires had spits set up above them. "But they'd go further in a stew," he stated.

"Aye, they would. If the princes and that cousin of yours had come back with the water in time," Gavin nodded to where the their packs were still sitting against a tree and the cold pile of wood that someone had been kind enough to gather for them. "But I'm tired of waiting, so I'm throwing them over the fire."

"Mahal's bloody beard, those three!" Dwalin cursed. "I'll be glad when we're back in the mountain and I can give them back to their parents." And he was never being responsible for all three of them at once again. He cast his gaze around the camp, looking for the first person he could find who wasn't busy and wouldn't be caught up in whatever harebrained scheme those three were up to now to go after them. "Birna!" he called to the young dwarrowdam a few fires over. She might have looked small and delicate by dwarven standards, but she had a zero tolerance policy for bullshit; just his kind of girl. "Go see what those numbskulls are up to and get them back here with the water."

Birna nodded before narrowing her gaze and marching off into the woods. Dwalin went back to his task with a furrowed brow and grimace. It wasn't until the birds’ outer skins were starting to sizzle that she returned.

"Sweet Mahal," Gavin swore under his breath, catching Dwalin’s attention.

Gimli stood by the fire, shifting from foot to foot and looking anywhere but at Dwalin. The dwarfling’s clothes were disheveled and soaked through. It was obvious that he'd been shoved into the lake at some point, long enough ago that he'd stopped dripping. That didn’t hold the old warrior’s interest, though. He’d expected all three of them to come back wet when they hadn’t returned within a reasonable amount of time. He hadn’t expected the tiny, curly-haired babe tugging at Gimli’s beard. The infant was as wet as Gimli and covered in dirt but that was as far as Dwalin could tell since the little one was mostly obscured by Gimli’s arms. Gimli became increasingly more fidgety the longer Dwalin stared, though that could also be attributed to the babe who started squirming in the Dwarf’s arms to get a better look at the rest of the camp. When he realized that half the camp was gaping at him, he buried his face in Gimli’s shoulder to hide.  

Dwalin groaned and similarly buried his face in his hands. "Gimli, lad, please tell me you three didn't steal a Hobbit babe.” His voice was muffled but understandable enough. And it had to be a Hobbit, he had gotten a glimpse of the babe’s feet and he was fairly certain that there was no other race in Arda that had feet that big and calves that hairy.

Gimli stilled at the accusation and puffed up with hurt pride. "We didn't steal him! We found him."

Dwalin raised his head to give him a sharp glare. "Found? Gimli, you don't just find a baby!" The bald warrior's growls caught the attention of the rest of the camp. Several of them stood or craned their necks to get a better look at the little Hobbitling.

The babe peeked out from Gimli’s hair to eye Dwalin warily.

"But we did!" the Dwarfling protested. "We were filling the water skeins," Dwalin, Birna, and Gavin each gave him a look that had him backpedaling to tell the truth, "We were roughhousing in the water and Fili happened to look up and he was just sitting there staring at us!"

"And you didn't think to look for his parents?" Dwalin rubbed at his face, resisting the urge to pull at his beard in frustration. This was just what they needed; Hobbits thinking they'd stolen one of their young. Trade Caravans from the Blue Mountains traversed the old North/South Road that passed through The Shire to get to Rohan and Gondor. While the Hobbits weren’t aggressive to the Dwarrows (even if they _could_ be), they weren't exactly welcoming,either. They couldn't afford to risk the Hobbits closing off the road to them.

"Of course we did! We're not stupid," Gimli huffed. Dwalin begged to differ. "We couldn't find them."

"Are you suggesting that the babe's parent's left him out here on his own? To what? Die?" It was very nearly unthinkable for Dwalin - for any Dwarf. Even at their poorest and most downtrodden, no Dwarf parent would think about abandoning a babe to ease the burden. Foster the child to relatives who could afford it, yes. Taking herbs to expel the child from the womb, okay. But to leave a born child to die in the wild? Dwalin could feel a shudder pass through the entire company at his words.

Birna rolled her eyes at Gimli's sputters and shouldered her way past him. "What he's not explaining is that I found the three of them at the Hobbits' camp not too far from here," she informed them. "It looked like they were only going to be on the lake for the day but we couldn't find any trace of the adults. I left Fili and Kili to keep looking and brought Gimli and the babe back to see what you wanted to do."

Dwalin took a moment to breathe deeply and order his thoughts. They had a Hobbit babe that had apparently been wandering the woods for an unknown amount of time with seemingly missing parents. Right. The first thing to do was to double-check Fili and Kili’s work. He turned to Gavin. "Go help the lads search. Birna, show him the way." The two nodded and headed off. The bald dwarf called over two other younglings and sent them to go finish filling the neglected water skeins. Gimli shifted in place, his feet squishing in his water logged boots. With a sigh, Dwalin held out his hands. "Give him here, lad. You go dry off and get something to eat."

The redhead hesitated. "He'll cry," he warned. "He didn't let us pick him up for the longest time."

"That's fine, lad. I've dealt with screaming babes before." He gestured for Gimli to hand the baby over.

"Okay," Gimli drew out the last vowel as he handed over the Hobbitling. He watched as the babe stared at Dwalin for a moment before his face scrunched up and he leaned away, reaching out for the redheaded dwarf. "I told you so!" he said, half reaching out for the babe just as the little one started screaming.

Dwalin laid the little one on the ground so that he wouldn’t have to worry about accidentally dropping the squirming child and hoped that maybe he’d calm down. He expected the crying to continue for a bit, with some fist waving and kicking thrown in, maybe some attempts to roll over, but he was shocked when the babe immediately rolled to his front and crawled to Gimli. Gimli moved to sweep the child up but Dwalin waved him away and grabbed the babe by the foot to keep him from following after. It was surprising that the Hobbitling could crawl, given he was so small. He couldn't be more than six months and should still be scooting across the ground, not crawling on all fours. But then Hobbits were smaller than Dwarrows so it stood to reason that their children would be smaller too.

The child flopped to his stomach, screaming face first into the ground and trying to pull his leg from Dwalin's grip. With a huff, Dwalin leaned forward and slipped a hand under the little one to pull him back into the dwarf's lap. The crying increased in volume and pitch, beginning to border on hysterics, as the Hobbitling continued to reach for Gimli.

"Here now, lad, no need for that," Dwalin soothed, turning the babe in his hands to sit him on his chest. Tears ran over flushed cheeks and the Dwarf tsked as he tried to thumb them away but the little one squirmed away from his hands. When it became obvious that he wasn't going to be able to get away, he flopped over backwards until his head was upside down and continued to scream. "Now I know that's not comfortable. C'mon, sit up," the dwarf coaxed, snagging the babe's hands in one of his and pulling him into an upright position. When Dwalin was sure his new charge was going to stay sitting up, he let go of his little hands and dug around in his pack, looking for something for the Hobbitling to play with. He came up with a piece of jerky.

"Hey, look." Dwalin waved the meat in front of the babe's face. Slowly, the crying subsided, though a few tears lingered on his lashes and pooled on the pudgy ridge of his cheekbone. "See, do you want it?"

The little one hiccupped occasionally while he considered the meat. Dwalin ripped a piece off with his teeth before offering the rest to the babe. Little hands hesitated for a moment before reaching out to take the jerky and turning it over and around. The Hobbitling inspected the dried meat until it inevitably ended up in his mouth. As soon as he realized that it actually had a pleasant taste, he began chewing and sucking on it in earnest.

His focus made Dwalin wonder when he had eaten last. Dirt covered the lad's skin. His hair even had a few leaves stuck in the dingy blonde hair. It was highly unlikely that the poor thing had eaten for a while or at all today. Judging by his still damp clothes, he'd been without supervision for some time if he’d been playing in the water with his clothes still on. He wondered what they had in their stores that such a young child would be able to eat. Dried meats, cheese, hard breads, and various root vegetables were all that came to mind and Dwalin didn't think those were suitable. The Hobbitling didn't even look old enough to begin weaning from his mother's breast, let alone eating solid foods.

The two that he’d sent after the water had returned from the Lake and were passing out filled water skeins and pots of water. He supposed that they could make a stew; boil everything until it was nice and soft before mashing it up to spoon feed to the little one. It probably wasn't what the lad was used to but it would do for now.

Remembering that there were birds roasting over the fire, Dwalin turned to check on them, fearing the worst-blackened birds-only to find that one of the other Dwarrows sharing his fire had been tending to the fowl. He nodded to the Dwarf in thanks and asked if he wouldn't mind setting up a pot to warm some water. The babe needed a washing, first and foremost. He'd worry about food after. Besides, he seemed happy enough to gnaw on the jerky for the time being.  

When the water had warmed to the right temperature and a suitable cloth had been found, he started to undress the Hobbitling. The babe fussed when Dwalin tried to pry the jerky from his mouth and hands so,in order to keep the tentative calm he managed to find, the Dwarf maneuvered the babe's arms through his shirt sleeves one at a time, making sure to switch the jerky to different hands and pulling it quickly from his mouth when Dwalin tugged the shirt over his head. The pants were next, exposing the full nappy that the babe was wearing. Dwalin silently cursed his forgetfulness, unable to reasonably explain how he'd forgotten about it when it had obviously been soaking through the boy's pants and into his own. He just hoped this never got back to Thorin or he'd never live it down. Carefully, he removed the soaked diaper, wary of any surprises that the lad might have left for him. There was nothing hiding in the cloth folds, so Dwalin hoped that maybe the babe hadn't been left as long as they thought.

Starting with the lad's oversized feet and hairy calves, the dwarf slowly worked his way up, thoroughly cleaning every inch of his skin. Dwalin didn't think he'd ever seen such a squirmy babe and he had bathed Kili a few times as a Dwarfling. Even calm as he was with a piece of jerky in his mouth, the little one still kicked and rolled and wriggled away from the wet cloth. As he cleaned, the Dwarf checked for any hidden injuries. Scratches littered the lad’s legs and arms but that seemed to be the worst of it. The hardest part to clean was the Hobbitling’s little arms and face since he didn't want to relinquish his hold on the jerky. There was a steady stream of drool sliding down his chin and neck that Dwalin had to wipe away. The babe’s hands were also sticky for some reason which Dwalin couldn't figure out. Gimli had been an unreasonably sticky child too, though, if he remembered correctly.

When he was done wiping the babe down, Dwalin fished around in his pack for one of his spare shirts and managed to somehow tie it around the lad so that he wasn't lost in the abundance of cloth. He threw the boy’s clothes in the pot of still warm water to soak for a bit and turned his attention back to the real problem; how to feed the babe?

Dwalin was searching through the supply packs, sorting through the leftover winter vegetables and the fresher spring ones for a soup for the babe when he was distracted by the arrival of Gavin and the others. Birna led a cart-laden pony behind her while the others walked alongside the cart. Dwalin lumbered to his feet, plucking the babe from the ground beside him and making his way over the edge of the camp where they were tying off the pony and unhitching the cart.

"We brought back all the camp stuff," Gavin informed him. "We'll probably need most of it to take care of the lad."

Behind Gavin, Fili and Kili clamored into the cart to start sorting through items and pull out what they would need while Birna fetched water and feed for the pony.

"You didn't find his parent's then?" Dwalin asked.

"No, though we did spot a boat floating out on the water and foot prints the right size for a Hobbit leading into the lake at a run. We think one might have had an accident and the other went in after them and they both drowned."

"So we're stuck with him then." It was a statement more than a question.

“Looks like it.” Gavin held out a small patchwork quilt to Dwalin. The patches varied in colors and patterns but it was mostly yellow and green with a bit of blue. The back was a cloth of pale blue cotton and there were bits of leaves and dirt stuck in several places. As soon as the Hobbitling caught sight of the blanket, he reached out for it, dropping the jerky to the ground. “We found this on the ground and assumed it was the babe’s. It’s got his named on it.” And sure enough, as Dwalin helped the babe get a firm hold on the blanket he saw one yellow corner had ‘Bilbo’ stitched on it in dark green thread.

Dwalin looked down at the little lad in his arms. "Bilbo?" The babe looked up at him curiously, sucking on a corner of the cloth he had stuck in his mouth. "Is that your name? Bilbo?"

Bilbo babbled a stream of nonsense sounds at the dwarf around the fabric in his mouth.

"Aww, he's so cute," Kili cooed, leaning dangerously far over the side of the cart. Dwalin shoved him back before he could fall out though.

Fili looked up from the ceramic jars he was sorting through and scrunched his nose. “Bilbo?” he repeated. “That’s a weird name. Do all Hobbits have weird names?”

“Just the men mostly.” Gavin shrugged. “From what I’ve noticed at least. The women are named after plants and flowers though.”

“Flowers? Why not a nice gemstone?”

“They’re an agricultural community, lad. Not a mining one like ours,” the elder warrior explained, knowing that Bilbo was the Younglings’ first interaction with a Hobbit. “They’re going to have different priorities and interests than us.”

Fili shook his head and went back to the jars. Silently, Dwalin agreed with Fili. The Hobbits were an odd bunch from his experience guarding caravans through their lands. But he decided it was better to keep his mouth shut and let Gavin teach the lads some acceptance of other races. Mahal knew they wouldn’t get it from him or Thorin.

"So, uh,” Kili started, not quite sure what to say in the following silence. “What do we all need to get out of here, exactly? Because there's a lot of stuff," he finally asked, knocking his boot against something on the bed of the wagon.

Gavin shook his head and looked to Dwalin. The warrior had no children of his own and had been away from the mountain working as a mercenary when his niece and nephew were this little so he wouldn't be much help with Bilbo. Dwalin tried to hand Bilbo off to his friend, thinking he could at least hold the little Hobbit for the few minutes it would take to find what he needed, but Gavin put his hands up in front of his chest and quickly backed away from Bilbo, even as the babe started to scrunch up his face in preparation to cry at being handed off to someone he didn’t know. Snorting at Gavin’s reluctance and skeptical of Fili and Kili’s abilities to hold a wriggling babe, Dwalin shifted Bilbo to his hip and tried to sort through the Hobbits’ things one handed. It was a slow process that was hampered by Kili’s attempts to help. The young Dwarf kept pulling out things that weren’t necessary and ruining what little organization there was among the items. Fortunately, Gimli chose that moment to walk over and see what was going on. Upon sighting him, Bilbo babbled and reached for the redhead.

"Here, lad, hold him for a minute." Dwalin thrust the babe into the young dwarf's arms before climbing into the back of the cart himself and shoving Kili out of the way.

Bilbo tugged at the blanket still in his hand, trying to haul it back into a comfortable position. He nearly dropped the quilt but Gimli managed to get a hold of it and wrap it around the Hobbitling’s shoulders. There was a chorus of ‘aww’s’ when he got both hands into the fabric, buried his face in it, and cuddled into Gimli’s shoulder. The moment only lasted for a few seconds before Bilbo’s head popped back up and he babbled at Gimli in his strange mix of sounds.

In the cart, Dwalin sorted through all the Hobbit's belongings. There were blankets, clothes, bibs, and toys for Bilbo. He'd be able to put a real nappy on the lad and get him back into clothes that fit him. There was also a wooden box packed with straw and ceramic jars. He pulled out one of the jars to find that it was full of preserved peaches, according to the neat black script. There was also a date, presumably of when the food had been preserved, but Dwalin couldn’t make sense of it since he never bothered to learn the Hobbits’ calendar. The next jar he pulled out was apples. Dwalin quickly went through all the jars and found various fruits and vegetables that wouldn't be in season for a few more weeks, months in the case of some. Eventually he came across a couple jars that were already open and half empty. He wondered vaguely if they had been feeding these to Bilbo. There was also a bag of oats and dried fruit and nuts. It seemed the Hobbits had been planning on staying at the lake for some time. Although, if he remembered right, Hobbits ate quite a bit so this might have been more of a weekend trip than a week-long one.

Dwalin was sorting through a pile of clothes to look for something suitable for Bilbo to sleep in. He was only half listening to Gimli tell the Hobbit not to pull his beard when the redheaded Dwarf suddenly squawked. He spun around in alarm to find Gimli holding Bilbo out at arm’s length, a steady stream of fluid hitting the ground between his feet and a wet spot on his shirt.

The Dwarf sputtered and turned red in the face while the others stared, wide-eyed. “He peed on me!” Gimli finally managed to stutter.

Gavin was the first to crack. He threw his head back and practically howled with laughter. The others were quick to follow. Bilbo, thinking the whole thing was a game, giggled too and reached for Gimli, who scowled and refused to bring the babe any closer to himself.

Dwalin wiped the laugh tears from the corner of his eye. “Did I mention that he has no nappy on?” he asked. Fili and Kili, whose laughter had started to die down, picked back up again. Gavin patted the poor Dwarf on the back, still chuckling.

“What am I supposed to do with him?” Gimli growled. “His front is soaked.”

“Just give me a minute,” Dwalin told him. He thrust a pile of blankets, food, eating and cooking utensils, and a couple toys at Gavin. “Bring those over to the fire,” he ordered before grabbing a nappy and outfit for Bilbo. He jumped out of the cart and took Bilbo from Gimli, careful to hold the babe back to chest so that he wouldn’t end up with a wet spot on his shirt too.

It didn’t take long for Dwalin to clean Bilbo up and redress him. By the time he was done, Gimli had changed his own shirt and he and the two Princes had joined their fire. They placed a pan over the flames to fry up some of the winter vegetables with a bit of the lard from their stores to go with the fowl. Dwalin pulled out a long handled fry pan that he found in the Hobbits’ wagon and filled it with vegetables and fruit from the already opened jars. He wasn’t sure how much Bilbo ate but he would rather make too much than have the babe go hungry, so he used a little bit of everything; peas, carrots, seasoned green beans, and a few slices of spiced apples.

Bilbo climbed in and out of Dwalin’s lap while he cooked and often strayed too close to the fire for the Dwarf’s comfort. The Hobbitling reached for the handle of the pan, nearly dragged his blanket into the fire, and was a general obstruction to Dwalin’s work. The Dwarf tried to hold Bilbo on one hip to keep him out of the way but the babe refused to sit still. He would twist and turn to see everything, tug on Dwalin’s beard, or arch his back so that he would slide halfway down the Dwarf’s side. Eventually Dwalin gave up trying to keep Bilbo out of trouble on his own. He snatched up a couple of the babe’s toys before plopping him on the ground a suitable distance from the fire.

“Gimli!” he barked. He dropped the toys to the ground and pointed at them. “Come play with him until I finish his food.”

Gimli didn't need to be told twice when Dwalin used that tone. He scrambled off the ground and over to where Bilbo was spinning the wheel of a toy cart. Fili and Kili weren’t far behind. Kili picked up a stuffed bunny from the ground and started hopping it around Bilbo's feet, making him giggle and reach for the toy.

Dwalin stomped back to his place by the fire to make sure that Bilbo’s food hadn’t burned in the few minutes it took to distract him. Next to him, Gavin removed the birds from the fire and sliced into the inside of the thigh with a small knife to check how done they were. Satisfied that the juices were running clear, he started to shred the meat evenly into a bowl for each Dwarf at the fire. It wouldn’t go as far if Fili, Kili, and Gimli were sharing, but a heaping scoop of fried potatoes, carrots, onions and a chunk of dried bread would. Dwalin pulled the pan he was tending to off the fire and poked at the food a bit to test its temperature. When he was sure that it was warm but not too hot, he moved it all to a bowl and roughly mashed it up into bite sized pieces.

Dwalin nodded his thanks to Gavin, who had placed the bald Dwarf’s dinner portion at his knee, before turning to the group behind him.

“Food’s ready, lads,” he called. He became distracted with moving food around the bowl with a small pewter spoon and gathering an appropriately sized bite for Bilbo.

“Uh…” Kili started, grabbing Dwalin’s attention. “Should he be doing that?”

The brunette was pointing to Bilbo, who was standing halfway between the group of younger Dwarrows and Dwalin, looking back at Kili curiously. Although he was still it was obvious that he had walked the distance by himself - probably stood on his own too if the shocked looks on their faces were anything to go by. Once again Dwalin found himself amending how old he thought Bilbo was. If the Hobbitling was walking on his own, then he had to be older.

“Don’t matter if he should be, he is. Come here, Bilbo. You hungry?” Dwalin waved the spoonful of mashed apple in the air, trying to entice Bilbo closer. He grinned and reached out in front of him as he walked as fast as his hairy little legs would take him. Fili startled when he stumbled over an uneven part of the ground and had already taken two steps towards the babe by the time he righted himself. The blond still hovered behind Bilbo, ready to catch him if he started to fall, but, despite his difficulties with the bumpy ground, Bilbo had a steady, confident gait which made Dwalin add a few more months to his speculated age.

Bilbo fell against Dwalin’s side, already moving his mouth to the spoon. He missed, though, smearing the food all over his upper lip and nose. The younger Dwarrows laughed, making Bilbo swivel around to look at them and smile. Dwalin huffed and sat the Hobbitling down in front of him before wiping the mess away with the bottom of his tunic.

"Okay, now stop distracting him so he'll eat," Dwalin grumbled at Fili, Kili, and Gimli. The three moved to the other side of the fire to take their portion of the food.

Once Dwalin regained Bilbo’s attention with another spoonful of apple that managed to make it into his mouth, he ate with a single-minded determination that impressed several of those around the fire. There were several comments about Dwalin being barely able to get the spoon into his mouth before the babe wanted another bite. Eventually, though, Bilbo started to lose interest. He became easily distracted by other Dwarrows and their belongings and tried to walk away several times. By the time Dwalin scraped the bottom of the bowl, Bilbo was turning his head away from the spoon and had to be coaxed into taking bites. Once they were finished with the mashed foods, Dwalin filled one of the oddly shaped glass bottles from the pile of baby supplies with water. It took a few minutes of fiddling and impute from one of the other Dwarrows who had children of his own to figure out how the contraption worked, but Bilbo was happy to have something to wash down the food once he had it. Gavin had chuckled at him, but Dwalin put an end to that when he caught his friend in the shoulder with a halfhearted punch. Dis had used bottles for her boys when she had to wean them from the breast early, but that had been decades ago and apparently the times had changed when it came to infant feeding implements.

As soon as Bilbo pushed away the bottle and refused to take it back, Kili bounded around the edge of the fire, followed more sedately by Fili and Gimli, and snatched Bilbo up from the ground. Bilbo leaned away from Kili, eyeing him warily as if he wasn't sure he wanted to cry or not. After a moment of indecision, Bilbo’s face crumbled. He screamed and pushed at Kili’s face. Gimli reached for the wailing child, only to freeze with his arms outstretched when Bilbo leaned toward Fili. With eyebrows raised nearly to his hair-line, the blonde Prince carefully took Bilbo from Kili and propped him on his hip. Bilbo sniffled and laid his head on Fili’s shoulder, idly rubbing at his slightly running nose. Kili pouted for a moment before he suddenly perked up and pulled the bunny he had been playing with earlier from his pocket. It wasn’t long before he had Bilbo smiling and laughing again.

Dwalin turned to his own dinner while he vaguely listened to the three Dwarrows play with the babe. He looked over when he heard Fili squawk. Bilbo had become curious about the shiny beads hanging from the blond's mustache braids and latched onto one, making Fili grimace with each tug. Kili doubled over with laughter and Gimli could barely contain his own amusement enough to help untangle Bilbo’s little fist.

"Aye, s'what you get, keeping those ridiculous things. Maybe now you'll take them out," Dwalin called around a mouthful of food. Fili shot a glare at the bald dwarf but he was unfazed. It was nothing compared to Thorin's famous glares, though the lad had obviously been taking cues from his uncle. He'd been dealing with jokes about his mustache braids since the day he put them in as everyone close to him had found them silly. But Fili was a young dwarf and would eventually grow out of it. Everyone made bad hair decisions when they were young. Balin had a sketch of a particularly embarrassing one from Dwalin's youth, before he’d gained the Warrior's Crest.

When he finished his plate, Dwalin handed it off to a passing youngling who was already on his way to the Lake to wash his own dishes. He settled in against his pack and lit his pipe, watching the lads  play with Bilbo. He seemed especially taken with Gimli, a fact that seemed to irk Fili and Kili to no end.

"So what are we going to do with him?" Gavin asked once he had lit his own pipe and reclined in a position similar to Dwalin's.

The tattooed warrior puffed on his pipe for a moment before answering. "Have to take him back to The Shire, yeah?"

"Probably the best for the lad," the dark haired dwarf agreed. He pointed to the playing younglings and Hobbitling with his pipe. "Best tell them that, though, before they get attached and decide they want to keep him. You'll never pry him away then and I don't think Thorin would appreciate you coming home with a Hobbit babe."

"No, he wouldn't." Dwalin could already see the thunderous look on his One's face if he walked into that mountain with a babe, let alone an outsider. "I'll pull out the maps in the morning and find the closest Hobbit settlement. We're not too far from the borders so it shouldn't take long to get there. Me and a couple of the others will drop him off with someone in charge and catch up to the rest of the group."

Gavin nodded. "I'll go with you."

"You're just tired of-" Dwalin was cut off by the sound of Kili hollering. He looked over to find the boys chasing after a gleeful Bilbo. "Don't let him wander off now!" Dwalin warned them. "Babes are quick little buggers and Hobbits are known for being silent. Don't take your eyes off of him."

There was no response but Dwalin didn’t think that they would leave Bilbo alone as long as he was in the camp. It wasn’t often that they got to play with someone as young as the Hobbit and it wasn’t a chance they were going to pass up. They followed Bilbo all around the camp as he went from fire to fire, inspecting every person and various belongings. Some of the younglings were nervous with such a tiny being nearby, while others welcomed him into their circle and cooed over his curls and big hazel eyes.

“How old do you think he is to be walking like that?” Gavin asked.

Dwalin hummed for a moment in thought. “Closer to a year, probably older, but he’s so small that he doesn’t look any older than six months.”

He couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face when Kili restarted the game of chase with the Hobbitling. The sounds of Bilbo's laughs and giggles had put a smile on all the veterans' faces and drew laughs from many of the younglings. Dwalin had almost forgotten how infectious a babe's laugh could be.

It wasn't long before Bilbo started to get cranky and grew harder to please and keep happy. He knuckled at his eyes and pulled at Gimli's pants, whining and wanting to be picked up. When the redhead finally understood what the babe wanted and picked him up, he immediately laid his head on the Dwarf's shoulder and tucked his arms to his side with his hands under his body.

"Here, lad, he’s ready for bed. I’ll take him back," Dwalin called. He bundled Bilbo up into the quilt and cradled him in his arms, face pressed to his chest.

Bilbo grabbed at his blanket and pulled it up to his face, snuggling into it and cooing. He babbled almost incessantly, alternating between random sounds and drawn out coos as Dwalin patted his bottom and rocked him back and forth. Little sounds distracted him, keeping him awake, and Dwalin had to glare around the campfire until everyone quieted down. Once it was quiet, it wasn't long before Bilbo was asleep, breathing softly and deeply with his hand fisted in his blanket. Gavin set up the bald dwarf's bedroll and spread several extra blankets out on the ground to form a soft spot for Bilbo. When he was sure the babe was asleep, Dwalin gently laid him down and tucked another blanket over him to keep away the night's chill. The other dwarves around them were bedding down for the night, a few staying up to keep watch in the night. Dwalin slipped into his own bedroll and threw a hand over Bilbo's stomach to keep him nearby through the night and fell into his own sleep.

Bilbo woke several times in the night, mostly when shifts would change, and Dwarrows were moving around. The sound of their boots thudding on the ground would wake the babe. He would struggle against his blankets and cry the low whine of a babe woken before he wanted to be. Dwalin would jerk awake each time and blink around blearily before he remembered that there was a babe sleeping next to him. Thankfully Bilbo didn't need anything more than a little bit of patting on his bottom to go back to sleep. By the time he was out again, Dwalin would already be dozing off.

Dwalin was one of the last to wake the next morning, an odd occurrence as he was usually one of the first. Bilbo was sitting up next to him, playing with his blankets and staring at the Dwarrows around him. There was a pot of porridge going over the fire, waiting for him and Bilbo. Gavin pushed a bowl into Dwalin's hands before sitting down in front of the babe and starting to spoon-feed him. He managed to get a few bites into Bilbo before he turned his head away and hid his face in his blanket whenever the spoon came too close to his face.

"How long has he been up?" Dwalin asked between mouthfuls.

Gavin dropped the spoon into the bowl. "Not long," he said. "Maybe a couple minutes."

"And the rest of the group?"

"Only about 20 minutes."

Dwalin finished his breakfast in only a few minutes, dumping his bowl and spoon in the pile waiting to be taken to the lake to be washed before dragging his pack to him. He dug around in a side pocket for a moment to find the map that he had folded up and stored there. It took a moment but he found it and smoothed it down on the ground. Gavin tried to feed Bilbo again but only succeeded in sneaking a few more bites into the boy.

"Looks like the nearest Hobbit settlement is Long Cleeve," Dwalin said after studying the map. "Doesn't look too far away. Not even a week's walk."

Gavin sighed when Bilbo turned his head away from the spoon again, smearing porridge all over his face. The Hobbitling ran his fist through the mess, trying to move it away from his mouth. "Will it just be us three then?"

"I don’t remember saying you were allowed to come." Dwalin looked at Gavin from the corner of his eye as he wiped Bilbo’s mouth and hand.

The warrior grinned. “You think you’d be able to keep your temper around those Hobbits?”

Dwalin rolled his eyes and folded the map up and shoved it back into the side of his pack. "You and Sorin will come with us,” he said, indicating another Dwarf who was nearby. He nodded his understanding and started to pack his things. “The rest of the group can return to the mountain. I'll leave a message with one of the others to give to Thorin, letting him know what happened."

The other warrior nodded and tried to give Bilbo another spoonful of breakfast. It just ended up smeared on his cheeks and falling onto his blanket. "I don't think he's much of a breakfast person." Gavin gave up, throwing the spoon into the bowl and setting it to the side.

Dwalin chuckled at his friend's frustration. "Give it here," he said, holding a hand out for the bowl while looking around for the jar of apples he had been feeding the babe last night. He mashed up several of the apples into the porridge and tried feeding Bilbo himself. It took a few tries to get the spoon into his mouth, but once Bilbo realized that the oats weren't as plain as they were before, he focused on eating and stopped squirming around. "I think he's just used to fancier fare than we are."

It didn't take long for Bilbo to finish his breakfast and, after a quick nappy change, Dwalin called over Gimli, Kili, and Fili to play with Bilbo while Gavin loaded up with cart with their packs and he informed the rest of the group of the situation. He left a note with Braega, who was being left in charge of the group, to hand to Thorin on their return to the Blue Mountains. Once everything had been taken care of, they hooked the pony to the cart, bid their farewells, and set off.


End file.
